Nancy Kilburn Wood b1795 Westminster, ENG - Worcester, MA
England-Massachusetts Fitchburg Daily Sentinel 1895-07-12
Surnames:Kilburn, Wood, Davis, Hadley, Andre, Durkee, French
"A Century of Life
This Mrs. Nancy W. Kilburn's 100th Birthday
Mrs. Nancy Wood Kilburn, residing with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. J. Walter Davis, Worcester completes today her 100th year.Not withstanding the great weight of a century of years, she retains her faculties to a wonderful degree.Her hearing, sight and powers of locomotion are necessarily much impaired, but not more so than persons of less age.Her memory of past events is very remarkable, and conversations with her on facts and incidents connected with her long life can be carried with great ease, and is very interesting.
She is almost as old as the country itself, having lived under every president, including the last two years of Washington's administration.She has a distinct remembrance of the impression produced on the country on the death of Washington when she was 4 l/2 years old, and she speaks of her father and some of his neighbors wearing black crape in mourning on the occasion of the death of the "Father of his country."
Mrs. Kilburn is of a long-lived ancestry.She was born in Westminster, July 12, 1795, daughter of Nathan and Margaret (Hadley) Wood.Her father, who died in 1811, aged 88 years, was the second of 15 children, 10 sons and five daughters of Dea. Nathan Wood, born in Concord in 1723, who was one of the first settlers in Westminster, his large estate, purchased in 1750 including the place where his great grandson, Theodore S. Wood, a nephew of Mrs. Kilburn, now lives in the southeast part of Westminster, towards Princeton.This Dea. Nathan Wood was one of the most distinguished men of his time in Westminster and became the head of numerous descendants many of them like him, noted for high personal qualities in the various walks of life.He filled the highest offices from the beginning of the town, including selectmen, assessor and representative in the colonial legislature and was a member of the latter body when it convened in Salem in 1774 and converted itself into a provincial congress, leading the way to the establishment of American independence.
Dea. Nathan was son of Abraham Wood of Concord and Sudbury, who was grandson of the emigrant, William Wood, born in Derbyshire, England, in 1582 ?,who came to America about 1635 and settled in Concord, where he was accredited author of a book entitled "New England Prospects."Three of Deacon Nathan Wood's sons, Mrs. Kilburn's uncles, were in the revolutionary service, one of them, Samuel, being special guard to whom the captors of Major John Andre, the celebrated British Spy, delivered their prisoner, Sept. 23, 1780, during his transfer to military headquarters on the Hudson River.Another, Abel, was a commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment in the War of 1812.Mrs. Kilburn's father, Nathan Wood, Jr., was quite a noted "Singing school teacher," as she expressed it, "sitting at the head of the Westminster church choir for 40 years."
Mrs. Kilburn's husband, William Kilburn, whom she married in 1817, when she was 22 years old, was a young carpenter of Princeton, and they immediately established their residence in Chaftinville, (?) Holden, where they had seven children, four of whom are now living.Mr. Kilburn died there in 1862.Since his death Mrs. Kilburn has made her home mostly with her children in Michigan, and in Worcester, having resided for the last five years with her daughter, Mrs. Davis, in Worcester.When upwards of 90 years age, she made the journey to Michigan and back, to visit her children there.She is the last survivor of her father's five children, by 27 years.
Her husband's brother, Eli Kilburn of Sterling, died in 1891, aged 93 years, the result of an accidental fall, fracturing his hip.
Among the numerous pleasant incidents of her life, Mrs. Kilburn speaks of the fact of herself and husband being passengers on the first train from Worcester to Boston at the opening of the old Boston and Worcester railroad, July 4, 1835.WIth them, among others, were Col. Samuel Stratton and wife and other relatives of Holden.
Mrs. Kilburn's descendants include four children, eleven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.Her four children now living are a son, Joseph, over 70 years of age, and a daughter, Althiney, wife of Elisha Durkee, residing in Lawton, Mich; a daughter Fanny, wife of Rev. George H. French of Westmoreland, N. H., and Myra W., wife of J. Walter Davis of 30 Grove Street, Worcester, where she makes her home.
Up to four years ago Mrs. Kilburn was able to walk quite comfortably, on the street, but about two years ago she had a slight shock of one of her limbs, and since then she has been unable to walk at all, but with a little help she can get from a chair to her sofa, or the reverse.
Still her general health is good and she can enjoy her food.Though her hearing is impaired, she enjoys conversation and likes to talk about matters of long ago.She rises about 8 o'clock in the morning and sits up till 9 or 10 in the evening.She joined the Congregational Church in early life and is still a member.So far as general mental and physical health or vigor is concerned, apparently, she bids fair to pass on considerable beyond her century of years."
July 12, 1895
Fitchburg Daily Sentinel
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
I am not related.I found this great newspaper article while searching for my own ancestors.If you would like a copy, please send an email to me.